A Passion For Fashion Mit Students Create Clothes For High-Tech Era

Miniskirts? Try minicomputers.

Stonewashed jean jackets?

How about a denim coat with a synthesizer that plays the Stones as you sashay along?

It’s cyberfashion, funky clothing with a computer chic that would have even Judy Jetson scrambling to accessorize. The garments made their premiere Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory’s Wearables Symposium.

There was the practical, like the tiny device able to transmit to a real-time Web site a runner’s heart rate, body temperature and speed. And there was the whimsical - a “firefly” dress made of electricity-conducting organza, decorated with a spray of tiny, motion-sensitive lights which flicker with the wearer’s every move.

“The idea was for the students to display lyrical, beautiful, wearable things that would be of interest to the world,” said Media Lab professor and symposium organizer Michael Hawley.

Students spent several months collaborating with corporate sponsors and fashion students from France, Italy and Japan to create the wares, which may eventually hit the retail market.

MIT doctoral student Maggie Orth helped develop the musical jacket that uses a tiny synthesizer and touch pad sewn onto the wearer’s shoulder to play tunes.

“The idea of wearable computers is very exciting,” said Orth, 32, a specialist in technology design.

“It’s about transmitting information without having to hardwire the body with clunky equipment,” she said. “The potential is amazing.”

The symposium host, “Star Trek” star Leonard Nimoy, enjoyed the futuristic apparel. “Some of these ideas evolved from concepts first put forth in ‘Star Trek,’ but now they make ‘Star Trek’ gadgets look primitive,” he said.

Renowned jeweler Harry Winston designed perhaps the most extravagant cyberaccessory: a $500,000 Heartthrob Brooch.

Using two miniature transmitters, the diamond and ruby brooch glows rhythmically to the beating of its wearer’s heart.

“This is a lot more intense than the mood ring I had when I was 12,” said Cara Meschter, 19, who wore the brooch at the show. “It is kind of revealing if a handsome man were to walk up to you and your heart beats faster.”